Saturday, 25 September 2010

The Speed Endurance vote is heating up. Just 12 days left to weigh in with your opinion.

In a two horse race, Ryan Lochte, 3 time Olympic Gold medallist - 6 time medallist, leads for the first time since the vote went live. Michael Phelps (14 Golds, 16 total medals) has dropped back three votes.

Perhaps the shift in voter opinion is down to how the pair of superstars spent this year training...

All Done. Actually... make the US team be a bunch of dangerous, yet sensitive, vampires/werewolves and we have ourselves a hit.

-Josh Schneider has won his appeal to overturn his DQ at US Nationals. To refresh the memory, Schneider was unknowingly entered into the 100m Fly event which he didn't swim. As he failed to inform the meet organisers of his withdrawal they DQ'd him from his next event, the 50m Free. Schneider swam the event under protest and tied Cullen Jones for second in the final with a blazing 21.97, but subsequently had his DQ confirmed. As a result of this appeal, Schneider will be able to join up with the US National team and will have a swim-off against Jones to decide who takes the second 50m Free spot at next year's World Champs.

Common sense seems to have prevailed. Why we continue to have these pedantic rules in swimming baffles me. If you've taken illegal drugs, false start or attach a jet engine to your back, then you should be DQ'd. If you do nothing wrong in an event apart from no-showing for the heats of another, that to me is not valid grounds.

- I'm not even going to attempt to explain the situation regarding the Athlete Partnership Plan in the US as Garrett McCaffrey and Tyler Clary do a great job in the video below:-

- Saving the best news until last... Swimming at the Commonwealth Games start in just 15 days.

Wednesday, 15 September 2010

The first leg of the Fina/Arena Swimming World Cup, held in Rio de Janeiro, is in the books.

- Star of the meet goes to Thiago Pereira. Coming off a relatively strong longcourse summer season (world ranked 5th for the 400m IM, 6th for the 200m IM), Pereira was just 1.3 seconds away from Darian Townsend's 200m IM world record set last year. Pereira's time of 1:52.72 was the 11th fastest performance of all time. According to Twitter we're going to see the Brazilian at all of the remaining World Cup meets. He is definitely a contender for top overall points scorer (and the hefty prize money that goes along with that).

- On the women's side Therese Alshammar got off to an ideal start as she leads the points standings after Rio. Points are awarded to the top ranked swims of the meet and Alshammar's 57.04 earned her 899 points, enough for the maximum 25 points on offer.

For those interested in the professional nature and funding of the sport, here's an interesting quote from Alshammar...

“The World Cup Series is very important to me because the awards give me the necessary resources to support my practices in Australia. Another important aspect is that I believe that, to keep strong physically and mentally, it’s essential to compete a lot. This series of events keep me on alert and it’s part of my training. London Olympic Games 2012 are the main goal of my career”.

- Cesar Cielo had a strong, though not spectacular, showing on home soil. Cielo took narrow victories in both the 50m Free and 100m Free, beating Steffen Diebler both times. Cielo's 50m Free time was 21.08 from the heats (he swam 21.16 in the final) and 47.16 in the 100m Free. As has been the case all year, the 50m Free was a stronger event for him than the 100m. The 50m Free was just 0.15 seconds away from Steffen Nystrand's textile suit best time, whereas the 100m Free was 1.33 seconds off the best mark in textile, again held by short course behemoth Nystrand.

- Switching to Long Course briefly, 2010 is proving to be a strong year for Japanese swimming and one of their biggest female stars, Aya Terakawa, turned in a great time of 59.13 in the 100m Back at the 'National Physical Education Long-Course Championships' in Chiba (I've never heard of it either).

Terakawa's swim supplants Emily Seebohm at the top of the world rankings and is a new textile best time. Seebohm will get a chance to regain the top spot at Commonwealths where she will face England's Gemma Spoffort and Lizzie Simmonds.

Interesting note - Terakawa and Seebohm each hold 4 of the top 10 swims so far this year on the 100m Back. Terakawa has been sub-1:00 six times this year, Seebohm five times. Great consistency.

- Looking forward to future short course meets this year we have some interesting returning stars on the women's side.

Britta Steffen hopes to return to competition at the Berlin leg of the World Cup Series (30 and 31 October). For those who struggle with the German language Steffen, has now returned to full-time training and hopes to be back to 100% in the next two or three weeks. She also mentions that if the Olympics go well in 2012 that she will probably just swim the 50m Free and relays at the 2013 Worlds before hanging up the goggles.

Friday, 10 September 2010

So anyone that follows this blog knows that I can rarely go 3 blogs in a row without a Paul Biedermann mention. Everytime he swims he gets a mention. Everytime someone else swims he gets a mention. He's essentially taken up more space here than anyone else.

True to his race tactics he was just cruising along, lulling me into a false sense of security, before dropping the hammer on Speed Endurance.... that's right, Biedermann blogs.

I may as well retire from blogging because there is no way I can match Biedermann. He's already come out firing with posts including literary quotes, fake facebook accounts and RETIRING FROM WORLD OF WARCRAFT. PB is taking swim blogging into a new era. The rest of the world needs to catch up.

Thursday, 9 September 2010

In all the excitement of August's major competitions, the World Cup series seems to have been overlooked by many in the swimming world. Big mistake. The swimming world cup series always offers some quality racing. It also offers a chance for someone to break a World Record in 2010. Going to be pretty hard though.

Thursday, 2 September 2010

After the excitement of August's major swimming competitions, we find ourselves in a bit of a lull in terms of competitive swimming. Here are some links to keep your swimming fix in order:-

- If you look at the picture at the top of this blog, you'll see I'm a sucker for underwater swimming photos. These photos from the European Championships are some of the best I've seen for a while. Image 22 of 24 of Nikita Lobintsev looking like a torpedo is my personal favourite, closely followed by Image 16 of Sebastien Rouault and Image 4 of Laszlo Cseh's head.

Issue.) As good as Nathan Adrian has been this year, I don't believe he has done enough to be anointed 'the best sprinter in the world.' Adrian is not at the top of the world ranks on either the 50m or the 100m Free. Yes he beat Cielo at Pan Pacs, but Cesar did not look on top form on the Freestyles and crucially he has proven himself on the biggest stage of all. Adrian hasn't... yet.

When he came up against the French guys earlier this year he lost to Fabien Gilot and tied with Yannick Agnel at the Paris Open. To be considered the best sprinter in the world I believe you need to be the reigning champion/fastest in the world in either the 50m Free or 100m Free. For my money if I had to pick a 'best sprinter in the world' right now I'd be torn between Bousquet and Cielo with Adrian (as well as Alain Bernard & Fabien Gilot) knocking hard on the door.

- Incase you missed it, ESPN ran an interesting article on Michael Phelps. The reporter stated that 'he is his sport'. This is contentious, but not all together wrong. Certainly opens up an entirely new issue, where would the sport of swimming be if Michael Phelps retired today. Would all the progress and exposure swimming has gained during the Phelps-era subside or would the sport react to Phelps' loss and continue to grow? Interesting one.

Wednesday, 1 September 2010

So I guess it's official? I'm officially starting back swimming. I must admit I'm excited about smelling like chlorine 24/7 again!!

The reigning Olympic champion on the 100m Butterfly and World Bronze medallist on the 100m Freestyle in Rome last year is getting back into the water after a year off. Trickett took an extended break from the sport in September last year before officially retiring on 14 December 2009.

This comes as welcome news to the Aussie women's team. Despite some outstanding individual swims at Pan Pacs, the Aussie women were swept by Team USA on all three relay events. Trickett, a proven relay swimmer, will provide added strength to an already strong team.

Assuming the comeback goes smoothly (a year out of the water shouldn't be too hard to come back from), Australia are right back in the hunt for the 4 x 100m Medley relay at Worlds (took Silver in 2009 without Leisel Jones) and Olympics (reigning champions). USA and China will be the main competition.

USA and Australia are evenly matched and with Trickett's potential to be the fastest freestyler or fly swimmer from all the names listed above and China's wildcard nature we should have a real race on our hands. Game on.

(I wonder if Trickett's decision will spur Thorpedo to get back involved in time for London 2012?)